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THE REAL CHANNEL ZERO

A few years before the onset of what would become known as the dot-com boom (bust, and echo), the focus of aspirant ®evolutionaries seeking to apply new advances in technology to media activism was set on the newly emerging platforms known as ‘desktop editing systems’. These non-linear video production programs had dramatically reduced the cost of creating television without significantly hurting the quality of the output. This new technology had the effect of democratizing the realm of television by enfranchising a new generation of film and video producers, many of whom brought new graphic and audio design approaches to the creation of televisual images. Suddenly, a new global underground was formed of artists who committed themselves to disproving Gil Scott Heron’s then ubiquitous maxim: ‘the revolution will not be televised’.

One such group was Channel Zero, the Toronto-based collective of guerrilla film-makers, editors, designers, and DJ’s who produced three feature length video-magazines over the short span of the project’s existence. Packaged as a new form of television ‘album,’ (a precursor to DVD) Channel Zero was able to circumvent traditional distribution via mainstream television networks through deals with international retailers like HMV, Virgin and Tower Records.

Initially based on gritty Hi-8 footage gathered by the group’s director during a 10 country world tour, Channel Zero’s approach to television and music design evolved radically through each production, culminating in a 3 part investigative series that was broadcast by CBC's, The National, Canada’s prime time national news program. It was the first time in Canadian broadcast history that an independent production team had been given the opportunity to speak directly to the CBC's national audience.

Over the next few weeks, GNN will present segments from each of Channel Zero’s video-magazines. In this first installment, we focus on the controversial CBC series, The Electronic Eye: Canada as a Surveillance Society, one that, even five years later, still holds ominous prescience about the current state of affairs in American civil society. Namely in the realms of government surveillance, manufacturing of public consent and the protection of privacy in the corporatist state.

Check out the old skool....

Content(Quicktime required, all links broadband)excerpts from The Electronic Eye:

Great find browsky, my experience in titling tells me that a good title for just about anything, is a title that is linked to other dope explanations and things either you knew that or not...its just nature and you better not fuck with it.

Between writing a paper due tomorrow morning and making eggs, I watched the Art of Democracy bit. It was really interesting. I liked the point that political leaders have replaced hearing what the public actually has to say with crunched numbers. It's bullshit that we as a country (and world?) will feel better about a leader simply because others around us do. For example, if Bush's approval rating is at 70%, the country is somehow intrinsicly better off than when his rating slumps to 53%. Bullshit.